Mark Winterbottom and Steven Richards won the Bathurst 1000 on Sunday by less than half a second from defending champions Jamie Whincup and Paul Dumbrell, giving the troubled Ford factory team its first win in Australia’s leading touring car race.

Winterbottom held his nerve over the final laps of the Mount Panorama circuit to beat Whincup, in a Holden Commodore, by 0.47 seconds, claiming his first win in 10 starts in the endurance race and giving Richards his third Bathurst title.

Whincup, who won last year’s 50th edition by 0.31 seconds, drew alongside Winterbottom’s Ford Falcon a few corners from home but a momentary loss of traction allowed Winterbottom to draw clear and claim the checkered flag.

Fernando Alonso kept the World Championship battle alive by finishing fourth in Japan, although the Spanish driver admits that he has no chance to beat Sebastian Vettel.

Alonso admitted that he was surprised to finish as high as he did at Suzuka.

“Yeah, a little bit because obviously we had some strong people in front of us, and we also had some threat from behind, like Kimi that was starting ninth,” he said. “But the race went good. From the start we recovered some positions, and then we’ve been a little bit lucky with some Mercedes problems, both having to go back. I think it was a good race in terms of points for the constructors’ championship. In terms of pace, we didn’t have the pace to be on the podium, but after those three we’ve been very competitive in the race.”

After leading for much of Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix, Romain Grosjean admitted he was starting to think about his maiden Formula One victory.

Grosjean was bidding to become the first French driver to win a Grand Prix since Olivier Panis at Monaco in 1996. He appeared to be on his way until he was passed by Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel on the 41st lap of Sunday’s race at Suzuka.

Vettel won the race for his fourth win in the past five races in Japan and his ninth win of the season. Vettel’s teammate Mark Webber then passed Grosjean on the penultimate lap to leave the Lotus driver with a third-place finish.

Before the track action began at Sepang on Sunday morning, Caterham Moto Racing Team confirmed its plans to join the Moto2 World Championship from the start of 2014. It will be working alongside Suter in a technical partnership, while California’s Josh Herrin has been named as the first rider.

In a presentation led by Dato’ Kamarudin Bin Meranun, Co-Chairman of Caterham Group, the company confirmed its imminent entrance to the World Championship as well as the fact it will be developing a Caterham-Suter chassis alongside Suter Racing Technology for the next two years, marking the company’s first foray into the motorcycle industry alongside its other commitments in car manufacturing and racing.

Dani Pedrosa has won the Shell Advance Malaysian Motorcycle GP, collecting his third victory of the 2013 MotoGP season. Marc Marquez completed a Repsol Honda Team one-two after a nail-biting battle with Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo, as the reigning World Champion rounded out the podium.

With four races to go in 2013, Sepang marked the first event of a triple-header which next weekend takes the MotoGP fraternity to Australia, before racing in Japan on the final weekend of the month. Saturday saw Marquez storm to a fourth consecutive pole position as the newcomer attempted to edge ever closer to an historic title win.